L'utilisation stratégique des instances de normalisation environnementale

Hounaida Ben Youssef, Gilles Grolleau () and Khaïreddine Jebsi

Revue internationale de droit économique, 2005, vol. t. XIX, 4, issue 4, 367-388

Abstract: Despite the several benefits attributed to voluntary standards, these standards may open room to strategies aiming at disadvantaging rivals. We identify several ?vulnerable areas? related to the standard setting, implementation and enforcement stages where such strategies may arise. Indeed, each stage can constitute a strategic area where a firm (or a group of firms) may attempt to raise its rivals? costs (Salop and Scheffman 1983; Salop and Scheffman 1987) while legitimizing its behavior by welfare enhancing arguments. Indeed, instigators may ?instrumentalize? the pro-environmental effects or the consumer protection provided by their devices to capture the standard process. Three brief case studies ? i.e., Allied Tube, Bic, DuPont de Nemours ? are developed to illustrate the risks related to the standardization process. We also stress potential counter strategies and draw some policy considerations, especially the ambiguous effects on society welfare.

Keywords: voluntary; standards; environmental policy; raising rivals'costs theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cairn.info/load_pdf.php?ID_ARTICLE=RIDE_194_0367 (application/pdf)
http://www.cairn.info/revue-internationale-de-droi ... -2005-4-page-367.htm (text/html)
free

Related works:
Working Paper: L'utilisation stratégique des instances de normalisation environnementale (2005)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cai:riddbu:ride_194_0367

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Revue internationale de droit économique from De Boeck Université
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jean-Baptiste de Vathaire ().